


Father Knows Best

by StrawberryLane



Category: Sky High (2005)
Genre: Background Relationships, Background characters - Freeform, F/M, Mr and Mrs Williams, POV Outsider, Prejudice, Steve is wary of Warren
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-23
Updated: 2016-05-23
Packaged: 2018-06-10 06:07:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,989
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6942907
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StrawberryLane/pseuds/StrawberryLane
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Josie informs him that he is being ridiculous. High school dating is a thing, you know. Maybe Warren isn't as bad as his father? Maybe the evil villain gene skipped a generation. The boy was raised by his mother, the superhero, doesn't that count for something?</p><p>Steve tells her no, he doesn't think it does. It's all about bad blood. And bad blood has a way of traveling. Warren Peace is going to end up just like his father. And Steve will be damned if he lets poor, sweet Layla end up in the crossfire.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Father Knows Best

**Author's Note:**

> I really like this movie, but have never written anything for it before. 
> 
> I changed the timeline of the party a little. Will doesn't try to throw the guests out immediately after talking to Layla. In fact, he doesn't speak to her at all. He's unaware that she stopped by. That event, of course, changes the rest of the movie plot somewhat. Will doesn't go to the paper lantern and talk to Warren. Thought I'd just explain that, since this is from Steve's pov.  
> ______________________________________________

Steve Stronghold is a man who knows what he wants, be it cake with lemon buttercream frosting for his birthday or his family to be safe, happy and cared for. Not that he thinks Josie and Will wouldn't be able to cope without him around, should he one day die whilst saving the world, but it would be nice to know for sure.

He knew he wanted to be just like his dad when he grew up. As it turns out, he is. He knew he wanted to marry Josie the minute he met her. As it turns out, he did. He wanted his son to have the same power as him (not that he'd ever admit it to his wife, who wanted Will to have her power). Admittedly, he had thought Will did have his power until the boy very recently admitted he'd pretended to have said power just to keep his parents proud of him. After assuring Will that they were, in fact, still proud of him, Steve had turned to Josie and asked where she thought they could find a vat of toxic waste. Josie had chewed him out for it, and Steve had assured her he hadn't meant anything by it. He'd mostly been telling the truth.

But all turned out well enough in the end, because a few days later, they got a call from the school informing them that Will had destroyed the cafeteria during a fight, using his super strength. Josie had been livid. Steve had been overjoyed. His son finally got his power! And became a hero instead of a sidekick.

Point is, Steve Stronghold is a man who knows what he wants. And since Will was born, what Steve wants most in this world is for his boy to be happy and healthy and to live a long life. With or without super strength. Count your blessings and all that.

Will met the flower child, Layla, in kindergarten. Their families has since had several barbecues and birthday parties and neighboorhoud cleaning days together. They are good friends, even though Josie always forgets about the whole vegetarian thing, even after all these years and Layla is a good kid and Steve is not ashamed to admit that he has seen Will's and Layla's future story play out before his very eyes many a time. He wants his son to be happy and have lots of kids, okay? With Layla. It's the perfect story; boy and girl meet in kindergarten. Boy and girl realize they're perfect for each other in the beginning of high school. They date all through high school and college and then get married in a big lavish wedding and, during the following years, have lots of little adorable children together.

That's what supposed to happen in this story. Will and Layla are each others one true and only love.

Except that is not what's happening; Steve's story has gone of script. Because Will, sitting at the dinner table, swirling noodles around his fork, informs Josie, with forced casualness that no, he's not going with Layla to homecoming, he's going with Gwen. Gwen, the technopath girl who was over for dinner the other night, Gwen, the girl who invited Steve and Josie to homecoming to receive an award. Gwen, the completely wrong girl. She seems nice and all and Will seems to really like her, but, it's just... She's not Layla.

"So who's Layla going with then?" Josie asks, "Your other friends? Zach maybe?"

"No...She's not."

"Not what? Going?"

"Not with Zach, or any of the other guys. She's going with Warren Peace."

"Warren Peace? That's the boy who started the fight in the cafeteria, wasn't it? The one who threatened to set fire to both you and your friends, Layla included?" Josie seems, understandably, confused. But not as confused as Steve.

"Wait. You're telling us that not only is Layla going to homecoming with someone else, she's going with the someone else who just happens to be Baron Battle's son?" Steve chokes out.

"Yes," Will answers, still swirling noodles around his fork.

"When did they even start hanging out?" "Yesterday, at the Paper Lantern. I was supposed to meet Layla there, to hang out, but then Gwen showed up and I just sort of...forgot."

*

Will is going to homecoming with Gwen Grayson, which, okay, not part of the script, but so far it's just a minor detail. Steve can work around that. His son seems happy, so it's all right.

Warren Peace appearing on the stage though, that isn't just a minor detail. That's a catastrophe.

Warren Peace is Baron Battle's son. Baron Battle, Steve's arch enemy all through high school, who took up a promising career in super villainy, only to be stopped and put in prison by none other than the Commander.

Steve knew Battle had a son, born a year before Will, he just never realized that that would come back to bite him in the ass. What he does realize though, now that he knows Warren is part of the game, is that the boy doesn't like Will, not if the fighting in the cafeteria is anything to go by. Presumably he doesn't like the Commander or Jetstream either. He most likely wants revenge for what happened to his dad. So what can a boy like Warren do to achieve that? He can't go up against the Commander in a fair fight, he'd lose epically. Not only is he just a kid in high school who barley can control his powers. He's also a kid who can't control his temper, it seems.

But he has access to the Commander's son, because even the birth of children was a competition between Baron and Steve. Now, there's not a lot Warren can do to hurt the son of the Commander and Jetstream, at least not physically, not without getting expelled and an early start to his career of super villainy. What he can do though, is hurt Will emotionally. By hurting Will emotionally he hurts their entire family. Will gets sad and depressed, Steve and Josie get sad and worried. Mission accomplished.

So how would a boy like Warren Peace go about doing such a thing? Well, that's where Layla comes into the picture. Here is this pretty, loyal and trusting girl. Warren might have tried to attack her during his fight with Will but that doesn't matter. Not when he's just a misunderstood loner jerk and she's just been stood up by her best friend. He probably just had to turn on the charm a little bit for it to work. Steve has seen pictures of Warren. The boy is not bad looking by any means.

So Warren asks Layla to homecoming, telling her he's really sorry and he never meant to threaten her or her friends, he was just so full of teenage angst that day. Won't happen again. He really likes her, would she pretty please with cherry on top do him the honor of being his date to homecoming? And Layla, always a sucker for helping the sad and helpless and also thoroughly charmed would say yes, and Will would get sad. Voila, revenge is served.

Warren will, of course, dump Layla the minute homecoming is over. Steve can't imagine any other ending to this plot twist. The guy wouldn't be so cruel as to keep up the facade just to mess with Will (and Steve), Steve thinks.

*

Josie informs him that he is being ridiculous. High school dating is a thing, you know. Maybe Warren isn't as bad as his father? Maybe the evil villain gene skipped a generation. The boy was raised by his mother, the superhero, doesn't that count for something?

Steve tells her no, he doesn't think it does. It's all about bad blood. And bad blood has a way of traveling. Warren Peace is going to end up just like his father. And Steve will be damned if he lets poor, sweet Layla end up in the crossfire.

*

Layla, who used to come over whenever, stops showing almost entirely. She and Will do hang out sometimes, but Steve can see that it's strained. They don't have classes together anymore so really the only time the two of them seem to spend together is the bus rides to and from school. Gwen, on the other hand, is at their house a lot. Something about helping Will catch up on the hero school work he missed whilst being in sidekick class.

Turns out, Steve likes her more than he though he did. She makes Will happy. Warren's plan might not work after all.

And then, the day before homecoming, the Commander and Jetstream get called in to take care of a giant squid monster in Italy. They win the fight of course, because when do they ever lose?

The mission took a lot less time than they thought it would, so when Josie suggests making a pit stop at Paper Lantern for Chinese and a throwback to old times date nights, Steve agrees.

They're halfway through their meal when the door to the restaurant opens and Layla walks in. Josie puts her hand up to wave and say hi, but something stops her. Steve shifts a little in his seat until he's able to see the red headed girl more clearly. She looks as though she's been crying and from the tear streaks on her face, she hasn't done a whole lot to try to stop anyone from seeing.

She walks past them without noticing either him or Josie and slips into a booth at the back of the restaurant, her back to them, shoulders still shaking slightly. She says something to the waitress that shows up to take her order and the woman disappears into the kitchen.

Steve can do nothing but watch as Warren Peace comes swaggering out from the kitchen and stops by Layla's table less than a minute later, carrying a tray of cutlery. His long hair is tied up in a bun at the back of his head and a dishtowel is casually thrown over his right shoulder. He's wearing a stained apron. Steve scoffs. Warren says something to Layla and slips into the seat opposite her. Getting lazy on the job, Steve notes. He then remembers that Layla was crying five minutes ago, so maybe he should cut Warren some slack right now. Unless he's the reason she's crying in the first place, but why would she actively seek him out at work if that was the case?

Both Steve and Josie are watching Layla and their son's archenemy pretty openly at this point, but Josie, at least, is making a point of trying to look like she's not watching them, she's just looking around the restaurant, admiring the decorations.

Warren says something else to Layla and hands her a slip of paper. He then slips back out of the booth and goes back to work. Layla turns her head to watch the boy leave and Steve notes that she's quietly laughing to herself.

For the next hour or so, Warren continues to work whilst Layla sits in her booth and eats, well, something that is presumably vegetarian. If Warren notices Steve's not entirely subtle staring, he doesn't act on it.

Half an hour before the restaurant officially closes, even though there's still a lot of guests around, the Strongholds included, Warren heads over to Layla's table and tells her something before disappearing into the kitchen. Layla, who has long since finished her late dinner, puts on her jacket, preparing to leave. Five minutes later Warren comes back out again (Steve is definitely not counting), this time wearing a leather jacket instead of an apron. His hair is down and he's carrying a motorbike helmet which he gives to Layla when she scoots out of her seat to meet him.

Steve can do nothing but watch helplessly through the window as Layla straddles a monster of a motorbike and wraps her arms around the boy in front of her. A second later they're gone. Steve is pretty sure he saw Layla smile just before she put the helmet on.

"He gave her his helmet, isn't that sweet?" asks Josie, who clearly haven't understood how this is a disaster.

Sweet, innocent sidekick Layla on the back of a motorbike driven by the son of a psychopath. A son who's no slouch in the anger department either.

*

Steve doesn't have a lot of time to think about what just transpired at the Paper Lantern, because him and Josie come home to find that in the space of time they've been gone, Will has apparently decided to throw a party. A party for just about everyone who qualify as a hero at Sky High. There's a lot of people there that Steve doesn't remember telling Will he could invite. Gwen is there, and she's the only one Steve remembers Will actually inviting today.

This is so not his day, even if they won that fight in Italy.

The teenagers all disappear surprisingly quickly once Steve tells them he wants them all gone before he reaches the number three, even Gwen. Soon there's only Will standing in front of them, looking dejected. They have a quick chat about how maybe they should punish Will by not letting him go to homecoming, but quickly scrap the idea. For one, the Homecoming would be a perfect chance to unveil their new format, the Stronghold Three and also there's the fact that Will really wants to go with Gwen. Steve can't handle the level of disappointment and moping about that would surely happen over the next few days if they were to forbid it and that is that. Josie takes away Will's new xbox, though, because he did throw a party in their house without their permission.

*

It's the day of the homecoming and if Josie knew what he was doing, she'd "accidentally" drop him into a vat of toxic waste, no doubt about it. He goes by Layla's house, using the excuse that he was in the neighborhood. It's still early in the morning, but not early enough that it isn't socially acceptable to turn up on your son's best friend's doorstep. He just wants to make sure she came home all right last night. Just parental concern. Just the parent of the girl's best friend being concerned, nothing else.

When Mr Williams opens the door still dressed in his bathrobe, with a newspaper clutched in the hand not holding the door, Steve thinks it may be to early, no matter what society's standards are.

"I was just in the neighborhood, jogging, and I thought to myself, it's been a while since Layla and Will hung out, maybe I should see if the Williams' know if anything's happened? And so here I am."

Mr Williams just looks at him.

"I can go? I'm sorry to disturb you."

"No, no, Steve. Come inside, I was just about to eat breakfast. Why don't you join me for a cup of coffee?"

"I'd love to. Thank you, and really I don't mean to bother you. It's just, they used to hang out all the time and now we hardly see her at our house anymore,," Steve sits down at the kitchen table, moving a few stacks of paper out of the way. Mr Williams' is a writer and as one, works mostly from home. Unless inspiration really strikes, in which case you can find him just about anywhere from the mall to the church.

Mr Williams doesn't have any powers, but Mrs Williams, who sweeps into the kitchen just as Mr Williams gives Steve a cup of scalding hot coffee, does. Her cover for her daily life is, very fittingly, a woman who works for an animal rights organization.

"Steve! I thought I heard your voice. Not that this isn't lovely, but what brings you here this early in the morning?" Mrs Williams is, just like her daughter usually is, dressed entirely in green. Unlike her daughter though, who always looks somewhat laid back, Mrs Williams always looks as if she's about to attend the most important business meeting of all time.

"Hello," Steve says, "I'm here, because as I've already told John here, I'm a bit worried about Will and Layla's friendship. It's probably silly of me, considering they've been friends such a long time, but I thought something might have happened? I know friendships can run their course, it happens all the time, I just didn't imagine it would happen to our kids."

"I agree, they have been hanging out less lately. I don't know what might have happened, Layla hasn't really said anything other than the fact that they don't share any classes together since Will got moved to hero class. Congrats on that, by the way. You must be very proud," Mrs Williams smiles.

"Thank you, I am."

"I was so sure they would end up going to homecoming together, but as it turns out, both of them found other dates, did you know? Layla tells me Will is going with the girl who organized the whole thing."

"Yes. Her name is Gwen, she's very nice. Who's Layla going with again? Will told me but I seem to have forgotten."

"She's going with Warren Peace. You know, I just remembered, a couple of weeks ago, before this fight they're having, Layla told us over dinner one day that Will had gotten into a big fight with Warren Peace. Apparently Will accidentally spilled his lunch over Warren. Do you think that might be the reason for Will and Layla not hanging out? Though I can't imagine why Layla would side with Warren instead of her best friend. Maybe it wasn't an accident? She feels very strongly about bullying of any kind, as you know."

"And trying to set someone on fire for accidentally spilling their food doesn't count as bullying?"

"Well, I can't condone what Warren did, but he must have felt he had his reasons. I imagine he doesn't like Will all that much, considering the history between yourself and Baron Battle. But no one was harmed in the end and they both got detention. It all seems to have been forgotten now anyways, since Layla is going to homecoming with Warren and from what I've heard the rest of their little group likes him as well."

"Are you okay with that? I mean, considering whose son he is?"

"Yes, we are. I also happen to know his mother. We're not best friends by any means, but she, just like us, is a big advocate for the safety of nature and animals. She's been to some of the protests we've organized around town. Lovely woman. And from what she's told me about her son, he seems to have his heart in the right place, once you get past the whole brooding thing. That's what she called it. Brooding."

"Everybody deserves a chance, Steve," Mr Williams says, and that seems to be the end of the conversation.

Mrs Williams has already left for work by the time Steve has drunk all of his coffee. He's just about to leave after thanking Mr Williams for said coffee and for bringing some light to their children current situation (nothing he didn't already know), when Layla comes walking down the stairs. She looks surprised to see Steve there.

"Hi Layla. I was in the neighborhood and thought I'd stop by. Josie and I was at the Paper Lantern for some late night Chinese last night and saw you there. You seemed... down. I just wanted to make sure you were all right."

"Oh. That," Layla smiles, "Don't worry Mr Stronghold, I'm fine. I had some nice food and talked to Warren and then he drove me straight home afterward. Nothing to worry about."

*

Since it's the day of the homecoming, Principal Powers decided that there was no need for the kids to actually attend school, instead letting them, and other attendees, focus on getting ready for the evening. Steve already knows he's going to be wearing his suit, because both he and Josie were invited as the Commander and Jetstream, not Steve and Josie Stronghold, but that doesn't stop him from making sure his suit is the best it has ever looked. So polished and not one scratch on it. Josie is wearing her suit, also well taken care of. Will, who refused to wear a superhero costume, is wearing an ordinary blue suit. Steve got him to wear red socks and a white shirt so at least they're matching. Which is important, considering tonight is going to be the big reveal of the Stronghold Three.

Will and Gwen have decided that they'll meet up at the school, because Gwen (in the role of head of the homecoming committee) will be there a couple of hours early to make sure everything is being set up all right. So Steve, Josie and Will all arrive together. The party is already in full swing. Will sneaks of to find Gwen before Steve has time to tell him to keep close; it's almost time for their introduction.

Steve looks around and spots Layla, Zach, Magenta and Ethan on the other side of the gym. And Warren. The boy is standing next to Layla, wearing an actual, real suit (Steve almost thought the boy lived in his leather jacket). Warren says something to Layla (why doesn't Steve have super hearing?) and she responds by holding out something that looks like a stick with a blob on top. Cheese cubes. Very popular to have at dinner parties and alike for some reason. Much to Steve's surprise Warren, in turn, responds by taking said cheese cube from the redheaded girl and popping it into his mouth. Not that Steve expected the pyrokinetic to start throwing balls of fire at the girl or anything like that, but he would have thought something would happen. Just as he is about to voice this thought to Josie, they are blinded by a strong, white light and Principal Powers voice welcoming them over the speakers. Steve looks around for Will, but can't find the boy anywhere. Gwen is standing next to Principal Powers on stage, holding the trophy they're about to receive.

Gwen steps up to the podium, holding a speech. Steve looks around for Will whom he finally spots. His son is standing next to Layla, who's standing next to Warren. Zach, Ethan and Magenta are all very clearly listening in on what Will is saying. Layla and Warren a also listening, but neither of them look all that happy. In fact, Warren looks downright murderous. Will takes a step back as Layla shakes her head. What is going in? Steve is abruptly torn away from his thoughts when a loud, crackling noise reaches his ears.

The last thing he sees is a big white light coming towards him.

*

What doesn't feel like, but apparently is several hours later, he wakes up in Medulla's lab, naked as the day he was born. He is quickly given a blanket to cover himself with by a lady who is dressed in one of her own.

"What happened?"

"We got turned into babies," Josie says, "by Gwen. Who is really Royal Pain. Didn't you listen to her speech?"

No, he didn't, because he'd been busy spying on his son and his best friend and the best friend's date to see if they'd start a fight right there, at homecoming.

"I must've spaced. Sorry."

"Gwen turned us all into babies. To raise us as supervillains, apparently."

"What about Will?"

"Boomer says he asked Warren, or hothead as he likes calling him, to get as many people as he could out just before he, Boomer, was hit by the pacifier. Warren got Will out. I know you don't particularly like the boy, Steve, but he got all of them out. Will, Layla, Zach, Ethan and Magenta. None of them got turned. And then they all helped save the school and us."

"How did they do that?"

"Well, Will told me that it wasn't just Gwen. She had some henchmen, or whatever you want to call it, on her side. Her dad, who's really Royal Pain's sidekick, Stitches. A couple of bullies and her best friend. Penny? The girl who is single handedly the entire cheer leading squad of this school. So they split up. Will against Gwen, Layla against all those different copies of Penny, Ethan and Warren against the bullies."

"Zach and Magenta?"

"Hid in a vent. Not much they could do with their powers in that moment. But then Magenta, with Zach shouting instructions at her, stopped the school from falling out of the sky."

"What?"

"Yes. Apparently Gwen made it so that the school would fall out of the sky. And Will can fly, did you know? He got both of our powers."

*

Will apologizes the moment they step out in the hall, after finding their clothes and getting dressed again. He says the only reason Gwen even got hold of the pacifier is because he took her into the secret sanctum the night of the party.

But this whole mess isn't Will's fault. It's not anyone's fault but Royal Pain and her gang.

Jonathan comes up to them to give the award. It's not an actual award as it stands, considering Gwen probably came up with it just to get Steve and Josie to attend, but it's still an award. And it's not him and Josie that are the heroes of the year, but the kids. The ones who saved the school and the lives of everybody in it. Steve tells Josie as much and he can see she agrees.

They turn to the kids who are all standing in a circle, talking. Will is now standing next to Layla who is smiling, and, holding hands with the boy on her other side. She's holding Warren Peace's hand and nobody is being roasted to death. Steve does a double take. Yes, still holding hands, Layla talking to Will. They look happy, all of them.

Now that Steve thinks about it, he has never, during the three times he has now seen them together, seen Warren act anything but polite and maybe even friendly towards Layla.

Huh.

*

Later that night, after Will has gotten back from the homecoming, which actually continued on after everything got back to normal, he explains what has actually been going on for the last couple of weeks between him and Layla.

"Layla told me she thought she loved me. Like, romantic love. We were about to hang out at the paper lantern the night Gwen first came over and I totally forgot. Warren works there, did you know? So they got talking. And then I was going with Gwen to homecoming and Layla told me she was gonna ask me but I was going with Gwen so she said she was going with Warren. And then she asked him, and he said yes because he was mad at me, and you, really. For his dad, you know. And then I was mad at Layla, because she was hanging out with my archenemy."

"Was that what that conversation I saw in the gym earlier today was about?"

"Yeah. I apologized for being a jerk. She forgave me. And I guess I'm gonna have to get used to Warren being around because apparently it stopped being fake dating quite a while ago."

"Really?"

"Yeah. Layla's been hanging out at Paper Lantern even more than usual."

*

Warren Peace is here, in Steve's house. The rest of the gang is too, of course, but still. It's weird. And tense. Half and hour ago he opened the door to find Layla, dressed in green as usual, shadowed by Warren in his leather jacket. Zach, Magenta and Ethan were there already so he knew Layla would probably show up too, he had just assumed Warren wouldn't.

So now he's hiding out in the kitchen, pretending not to listen in on the group of teenagers in his living room.

"Gwen couldn't build a fog machine? I doubt that," Warren says, possibly to Layla, as Will tells them about the night of the party. The party that, Steve now understands, Layla was coming from that night he and Josie saw her at the Paper Lantern. She'd gone inside she said, because she never thought Will would throw a party without inviting his friends (Will had looked ashamed at that) and had encountered Gwen, who told her some less than nice things. Hence the crying.

"Why?" he hears Layla's voice answer.

"The girl is a technopath, hippie."

"Oh."

"Yeah."

*

"I can leave if you're not comfortable with having me in your house, Commander," Steve turns around from where he is standing at the counter to see Warren leaning against the door frame.

"I know you don't think Layla should be with me. I saw you at the Paper Lantern, the look on your face when you saw my bike."

Steve sighs.

"I will be honest and say that no, I'm not your biggest fan, but Layla is not my daughter and the Williams' doesn't seem to have a problem with you, so there's really not much I can do about that. And the truth is, I have realized that I don't know you. I know your father and I could be wrong, but from what I've seen this last week, you're not him. I made assumptions."

"Okay."

"What I'm trying to say, son, is that me and your father never really saw eye to eye, but everybody deserves at least one chance. This is yours. But if you hurt Layla, in any way, shape or form, I take it all back, understood?"

Warren nods, “Yeah.”

 

 


End file.
